The Impact of Stress of Productivity of Workers in the Service Industry
There is considerable evidence to show that stress in the workplace negatively impacts productivity. More importantly, stress has become a significant problem in the service industry, where output and productivity directly depend on employee work efforts. In workplaces with limited knowledge or information on employee stress management, this can result in critical managerial dilemmas. Stress at the workplace can manifest in several ways, including absenteeism due to sickness, lack of motivation and commitment to work, and redundancy. Stress management and control should, therefore, be an integral part of organizational management.
Problem and Purpose of the Research Study
Stress refers to the body’s physical, mental, and emotional responses to particular stimuli or demands in the workplace. In many instances, stress at the workplace arises when the demand from a specific task is a way above the employee control. That is a higher workload and pressure of performance, in addition to poor work-life balance can result, and increasing use of temporary/casual contracts can add to the burden of work-related stress. In practice improving the quality of work-life and lowering the levels of stress experienced by employees remains a daunting task. This research focuses on some of the root causes of stress to develop recommendations on stress management that can be implemented at the workplace.
Scope of the Study and Hypothesis
Stress can result from several factors, including unclear work roles, poor time management, feelings of insecurity, bad personal relationships, and lack of proper communication at the workplace. Stress has several harmful impacts on employees’ psychological and physical well-being, including nervousness and gastrointestinal complications. There is a direct correlation between employee stress levels and productivity. The research problem is addressed by determining the relationship between stress and employee productivity using the following hypothesis;
H0: An employee’s level of job responsibility can result in stress
Theoretical Framework
Theories are critical to understanding how employee stress levels can negatively impact productivity and provide direction on how to remedy such challenges. Heightened levels of stress at the workplace in service industries can be attributed to several factors, including high job demands and insecurity. Establishing and identifying stress sources is critical to the development of solutions to counter the harmful impacts of stress and mediate the causes of stress and anxiety.
Interactional Model of Stress
The interactional theories of stress are based on the view that environmental stimuli and associated individual responses act as a foundation of anxiety. For example, the Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI) theory argues that effort at work is structured on a psychological contract, founded on the norm of social reciprocity, where effort at work is rewarded or appreciated, and an imbalance in this contract can result in distress. The personal fit theory described as the earliest interactional theories of work-related psychological distress suggests that distress may arise from a lack of understanding between an individual’s skillset and job demands. In this case, objective realities and subjective perceptions are impacted by environmental and individual variables.
References
Mawanza, W. (2017). The Effects of Stress on Employee Productivity: A Perspective of Zimbabwe’s Socio-Economic Dynamics of 2016. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 9(2 (J)), 22-32.
Pezaro, S. (2018). Theories of Work-Related Stress. Sallypezaro.com. Retrieved from https://sallypezaro.wordpress.
Shaukat, R., Yousaf, A., & Sanders, K. (2017). Examining the linkages between relationship conflict, performance and turnover intentions. International Journal of Conflict Management.